How do you store your rifles, muzzle down or up?

How do you store your rifles?

  • Muzzle up

    Votes: 87 87.0%

  • Muzzle down

    Votes: 13 13.0%
  • Total voters
    100
  • Poll closed .
UP

I store mine muzzle up because that was the way the safe was designed. Right or wrong? Who knows. However, muzzle down would make me nervous about dinging the crown and affecting accuracy. I get it, they are cold hard steel, but crazier things have happened.
 
Both.

The first group of long guns has to go in muzzle-up. The next group goes in muzzle-down.

I need a bigger safe (two more would be best). ;)


Oil causing damage to wood stocks is not a concern. My firearms get a very light film, and only where they need it. And with the average humidity level below 20%, rust is not a concern during storage. (Last week, the weather guys around here were making a big deal about a humidity spike to an "incredibly high" 33%. :rolleyes:)

And solvents...
If you aren't cleaning the solvents off after you use them, you may as well stop what you're doing. The whole point of cleaning solvents is to soften fouling and contaminants, for easier removal. If someone is failing to do anything about that removal step... their whole process is a waste of time.
 
On occasion, even if inadvertently, lubricants/solvents can "drool" into the difficult to access innards of a mechanism while being applied, even sparingly. Cleaning the stuff off with a rag is mandatory, of course, but sometimes, short of completely disassembling the gun, only gravity can get it all out.
 
...Muzzle down you can ding the crown,...
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What's the bottom of your safe lined with? Pea Gravel? Store all your loose caltrops down there?

Every safe I've ever seen has a padded liner of one sort or another .....
 
The pea gravel soaks up all the excess oil.


I don't think it is a large risk as much as a habit of mind to keep one's muzzle away from anything and everything.
 
L2R said:
I do both
A and B.

No other way to get 16 rifles in a 16 gun safe.

I gave it some thought but I can't see it doing any harm one way or the other.
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This one. Not only can I get all the rifles in the safe that it is rated for, it keeps the bolts and the scopes from banging togehter. Although it is time to upgrade to a larger safe, 16 guns just isn't big enough anymore.
 
My safe is Muzzle up also. Umm I keep reading muzzel down to drain excess oil and sovent?. Clue me in here. excess?. last patch for cleaning is to get excess barrel conditioner out. I keep getting this picture of oil dripping out your barrel when you pick it up:eek:. How much oil and such do you leave in your barrel and why?.
 
Quote:
How much oil and such do you leave in your barrel and why?.
Not oil, man...... solvent.

See post #10.

Jim--same deal and same question--WHY?.. Why do you need to soak gun overnight?. I hear of it being done,,but am at a loss as to why it is needed. Are your rifles that dirty?. Do you not clean regular?. I have often wondered about the foam stuff, but leaving junk in my barrel overnight ,,, I don't think I could sleep good knowing my rifle is like that.:eek:. I do understand the room issue.
Is that with all safes?.( 12 gun cabinet ) maybe get 10 in without bolts and such hitting?.

L2R-- I wish I had your problem ha ha:D
 
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Jim--same deal and same question--WHY?.. Why do you need to soak gun overnight?. I hear of it being done,,but am at a loss as to why it is needed. Are your rifles that dirty?. Do you not clean regular?. I have often wondered about the foam stuff, but leaving junk in my barrel overnight ,,, I don't think I could sleep good knowing my rifle is like that.. I do understand the room issue.
Is that with all safes?.( 12 gun cabinet ) maybe get 10 in without bolts and such hitting?.
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4runner.... here, read it again:

Muzzle down, as I usually put the guns away "wet" overnight after shooting.

Wet patch, brush, dry patches, wet patch, put away muzzle down, over night. Repeat until patches stop coming out blue.

You be amazed how much copper comes out of a "clean" barrel that has soaked overnight.
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It's in English, at least on my monitor ...... maybe yours is different.

When I go shooting, I often shoot several rifles, and often 50+ rounds each. I can either scrub and scrub and scrub each gun, or let the sovlent do the work it is supposed to.

It's not like I leave them soaked in oil for months.

I don't even put any oil in the bore when I'm done. The residual Hoppes' #9 is enough to keep the rust monsters at bay, even my basement.
 
Maybe I need to be a little clearer for the folks in "Minnsota" .... I'll break it down a bit ....


Muzzle down, as I usually put the guns away "wet" overnight after shooting.

Wet patch, brush, dry patches, wet patch, put away muzzle down, over night.

Repeat on successive days until patches stop coming out blue.

You be amazed how much copper comes out of a "clean" barrel that has soaked overnight.

Clear as mud now?
 
I like to get my firearms as clean as possible right after the range time. I realize this isn't always practical, but I think it's the ideal scenario. In terms of storing them, I have always gone with muzzle up unless it comes down to a space issue, then I certainly wouldn't have any problems with going muzzle down.

Personally, I don't like to leave anything saturated to the point where their would be any "leakage" and though I agree that it is a good idea to keep the solvents etc...from penetrating into the stock, or at least really soaking it, I prefer to use the lubes, oils, solvents etc...in moderation. Just my personal method.
 
I soak my barrel by running a wet brush through the barrel, then I stand it muzzle down.
By the time I put it in the safe its clean and pretty dry.
 
Some up and some down. Whichever way I have to turn them to get as many as possible into the safe. Usually on the ones muzzle up, I leave the bolts open.
 
neither anymore ;)

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in all fairness, 1/2 I long term stored in steel gun lockers ( before getting my walk in gun safe done ) muzzle up, & 1/2 were crated up laying down... they stayed like this for 15 years or so, & I didn't see a difference on either way...

... if I were putting muzzle down, for rifles, I'd be concerned about damaging the crowns, so I'd have to put them on something other than steel or fire brick...
 
Both.

Long guns with hard butt plates get stored muzzle up.

Those with rubber buttpads get stored muzzle down to keep from deforming the pads.
 
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